• Health Policy and Management
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.368-379
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• 2022

Background: This study aimed to establish a strategy to improve the poor working environment and working conditions among long-term healthcare workers in Korea. Methods: A total of 600 questionnaires with which long-term health care workers participated in the targeted base areas of each city and province nationwide were distributed directly and 525 responses were collected and 506 responses were analyzed. Surveys, on-site field visits, and in-depth interviews were also conducted to understand the working environment as well as conditions and establish a strategy for improving the working environment among long-term healthcare workers to understand the demands of working conditions and working conditions. Results: Korean long-term care workers firstly and mostly enumerated their risk factors for ill-health when lifting or moving elderly recipients directly by hand (69.9%), followed by increased physical workload with old beds, tools, and facilities (42.3%) in the workplaces, shortage of manpower (32%), and source of infection (30%). To improve the working environment as well as conditions, Korean long-term care workers considered improving low-wage structures, ergonomic improvements to solve excessive physical loads, and increasing various bonus payments as well as implementing the salary system, positive social awareness, and increasing resting time. Of 506 responses, 92.3% replied that the long-term care insurance system for the elderly should be developed to expand publicization at the national level. Conclusion: This study proposes to improve the low-wage structure of Korean long-term care workers, automation and improvement of facilities, equipment, and tools to eliminate excessive physical loads (beneficiary elderly lifting), and reduction of night labor.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.126-147
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• 1994

Lyme 질환은 미국 코넷티컷주의 라임지방에서 관절염증상을 보이는 소아과환자에게서 1975년 처음 발견되었다, 사슴, 누루, 개 등에 기생하는 진드기에 의해 전염되며, 발병초기에는 감기증상을 수반한 황소의 눈과 비슷한 붉은 반점이 생긴다. 적기에 치료하지 않으면, 관절염, 심장질환, 안면신경마비 등으로 악화될 수 있다. 본 논문의 목적은 두가지로 나누어 볼 수 있다. 먼저, 진단초기의 Lyme질환과 관련된 의료 및 기타 경제적 비용을 저렴하게 계측할 수 있는 방법론을 개발하고 그 유효성을 검증하는 것이다. 둘째로 lyme질환의 비용에 대한 여러종류의 총괄적 계측치를 제공하고 발병의 위험요인을 색출하는 것이다. 본 논문에서는 차트분석이나 임상연구 등 고가의 비용이 수반되는 분석기법 대신에 Lyme질환 다발지역에 대한 설문조사를 실시하고 그 유효성을 재설문조사를 통해서 검증하는 방법을 사용하였다. 자료분석상의 난점은 조사대상자마다 응답하지 않은 항목(Missing Value)이 다르기 때문에, 총 비용을 계산할 때 모든 항목에 응답한 조사대상자만을 사용한다면 표본의 크기가 너무 작아지는 것이었다. 이에 대한 대안으로 총비용 및 부분별 비용의 합을 계산할 때 표본의 일부가 응답하지 않은 항목에 대해서는 그 항목에 응답한 나머지 조사대상자의 응답치 평균을 대체하는 방법을 사용하였다. 통계적 분석결과, 질환의 증상시작부터 설문조사시기까지 Lyme질환과 관련된 사회적 총비용은 US$ 6400으로 추정되었다. 이중에 200가량은 환자의 보호자와 관련된 비용이고 나머지는 환자와 관련되 것이다. 총의료비용의 평균은 계산방법에 따라서 US$ 3000-4200의 범위를 보였다. 응답되지 않은 항목을 해당항목에 대한 응답치평균으로 대체하였을 때 총의료비평균은 US$ 4108이었다. 시간비용을 생산성손실에 대한 사회적 가치와 실제임금 손실의 두가지 방법에 의해 계산되었다. 실제임금손실은 생산손실의 사회적 가치의 약 30%에 불과하였다. 본 논문의 결과는 의료비용 및 비용과 생산성손실에 대한 정보가 지역보건담당자에 의한 전화설문조사에 의해 경제적이고도 일관성 있게 수집될 수 있다는 근거로 해석될 수 있다.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.240-250
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• 2018

By the end of 2017, in a world of 7.6 billion people, there were inequalities in healthcare indices both within and between nations, and this gap continues to increase. Therefore, this study aims to understand the current status of regional inequalities in healthcare indices and to find an action plan to tackle regional health inequality through a geo-economic review in Korea. Since 2008, there was great inequality in life expectancy and healthy life expectancy by region in not only metropolitan cities but also districts in Korea. While the community health statistics from 2008-2017 show a continuous increase of inequality during the last 10 years in most healthcare indices related to noncommunicable diseases (except for some, like smoking), the inequality has doubled in 254 districts. Furthermore, health inequality intensified as the gap between urban (metropolitan cities) and rural regions (counties) for rates of obesity (self-reported), sufficient walking practices, and healthy lifestyle practices increased from twofold to fivefold. However, regionalism and uneven development are natural consequences of the spatial perspective caused by state-lead developmentalism as Korea has fixed the accumulation strategy as its model for growth with the background of export-led industrialization in the 1960s and heavy and chemical industrialization in the 1970s, although the Constitution of the Republic of Korea recognizes the legal value of balanced development within the regions by specifying "the balanced development of the state" or "ensuring the balanced development of all regions." In addition, the danger of a 30% decline or extinction of local government nationwide is expected by 2040 as we face not only a decline in general and ageing populations but also the era of the demographic cliff. Thus, the government should continuously operate the "Special Committee on Regional Balanced Development" with a government-wide effort until 2030 to prevent disparities in the health conditions of local residents, which is the responsibility of the nation in terms of strengthening governance. To address the regional inequalities of rural and urban regions, it is necessary to re-adjust the basic subsidy and cost-sharing rates with local governments of current national subsidies based mainly on population scale, financial independence of local government, or distribution of healthcare resources and healthcare indices (showing high inequalities) overall.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.1-18
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• 2008

As medical insurance had been implemented for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) from January 1, 2005, this study investigated whether there had been any change in the amount of the medical care utilization of patients who undertook MRI before and after the insurance coverage, and was to examine factors affecting the amount of medical care utilization of MRI. Data were collected from patients who undertook MRI before and after the insurance coverage for a year at a general hospital in Kyeanggi-do. $X^2$ and t-test were used for the analysis of their general characteristics, the number of MRI, and its medical costs before and after the insurance coverage, and hierarchical multiple regression analysis for the factors affecting the amount of the medical care utilization of MRI. The results of this study were as follows. First, the number of MRI after the insurance coverage was significantly decreased. Second, there was no significant difference in the total medical costs of MRI after the insurance coverage, but a significant difference was found in patient's share of medical costs. Third, six variables were found to be affecting the amount of the medical care utilization of MRI, and the variables showed to lead the number of MRI decrease after the insurance coverage. These six factors explained 21.4% of the total number of MRI. As MRI had been covered by insurance, the use of MRI and patient's share of the costs were deceased, but the total medical costs were not affected. Reasons for that could be found in that MRI insurance, different from the case of CT insurance coverage, was allowed not to cover some items and the kinds of diseases subjected to the insurance coverage were extremely limited, lowering insurance prescription rate. In addition to that, the average medical cost of MRI was not changed after the insurance coverage. Therefore, as future measures for the MRI insurance, coverage, it should be considered to allow insurance coverage to no coverage items and to expand the scope of benefit coverage, or to lower patient's share of the costs. Furthermore, researches should be done to explore how recipients will act and how suppliers will react if the coverage is expanded, including expanding the scope of coverage and reducing patient's share of the costs, as well as to conduct research on its economic analysis according to case mix.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.98-115
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• 2003

Concerns about growing health insurance expenditures became a national Issue in 2001 when the National Health Insurance went into a deficit. Increases in spending for ambulatory care shared the largest portion of the problem. Methods and systems to control the spending should be developed and a system to measure case mix of providers is one of core components of the control system. The objectives of this article is to examine the feasibility of applying Korean Diagnosis Related Groups (KDRGs) to classify health insurance claims for ambulatory care and to identify problem areas of the classification. A database of 11,586,270 claims for ambulatory care delivered during January 2002 was obtained for the study, and the final number of claims analyzed was 8,319,494 after KDRG numbers were assigned to the data and records with an error KDRG were excluded from the study. The unit of analysis was a claim and resource use was measured by the sum of charges incurred during a month at a department of a hospital of at a clinic. Within group variance was assessed by th coefficient of variation (CV), and the classification accuracy was evaluated by the variance reduction achieved by the KDRG classification. The analyses were performed on both all and non-outlier data, and on a subset of the database to examine the validity of study results. Data were assigned to 787 KDRGs among 1,244 KDRGs defined in the classification system. For non-outlier data, 77.4％ of KDRGs had a CV of charges from tertiary care hospitals less than 100％ and 95.43％ of KDRGs for data from clinics. The variance reduction achieved by the KDRG classification was 40.80％ for non-outlier claims from tertiary care hospitals, 51.98％ for general hospitals, 40.89% for hospitals, and 54.99% for clinics. Similar results were obtained from the analyses performed on a subset of the study database. The study results indicated that KDRGs developed for a classification of inpatient care could be used for ambulatory care, although there were areas where the classification should be refined. Its power to predict tile resource utilization showed a potential for its application to measure case mix of providers for monitoring and managing delivery of ambulatory care. The issue concerning the quality of diagnostic information contained in insurance claims remains to be improved, and significance of future studies for other classification systems based on visits or episodes is guaranteed.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.71-91
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• 2009

To assess comparatively the administrative behavior of vaccination and satisfaction of physicians by the provision method according to the National Expanded Programme on Immunization (NEPI) between 2005 and 2006 Demonstration Project in Korea. A questionnaire was performed at 582 and 64 physicians in Daegu metropolitan city and Gunpo city on 2005 (a response rate of 39.3%, 45.3%, respectively). Also, we sampled 31, 56, and 28 physicians in Gangneung city, Yangsan city, and Yeongi county on 2006 (a response rate of 35.5%, 98.2%, and 60.7%, respectively). We analyzed these data set using descriptive analysis and $\chi^2$-test through SPSS for Windows (12.0). Most question categories in Daegu metropolitan city and Gunpo city on 2005 were higher than those in the 2006 Demonstration Project regions. These were 'preparing and signing informed consent to vaccination', 'doing physical examination before periodic immunization', 'searching past shot history and inputting the current shot record through the immunization registry management program by physician', 'filing a medical record', 'satisfying the impact of 2005 and 2006 Demonstration Project and achieving the expectation of this Project', and 'improving the immunization coverage rate', et al. In conclusion, we show that the attitudes and practices of physician should be more sensitive to free vaccination services by private clinics and hospitals than public health centers. In the near future, the government must consider the opinion of physicians in implementing the NEPI by the affordable method of the public-private dynamics.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.93-114
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• 2011

This study was conducted to identify college students' supportive attitude toward the elderly and their awareness of the socialization of care for the elderly, since they will have the responsibility for and the support of the aged society in the near future. This study was also conducted to analyze the factors which affect the socialization of elderly care, and to contribute to building a care system which promotes ahealthy and happy lifestyle for the elderly. After conducting a survey of 1,100 students from13 universities around the entire country, I have analyzed 1,089 data forms, and omitted 11 data entries which had errors or were not answered. 1. Those surveyed are 1,089 students from 13 universities around the entire country. Regional distributions are as follows : 263 students from 4 universities in Daegu and Kyongsangbuk Do(24.2%), 291 students from 3 universities in Busan and Kyongsangnam Do(26.7%), 272 students from 2 universities in Jeolla Do(25.0%), 263 students from 4 universities in Seoul and Gyeonggi Do. Males are 51.7% and females are 48.3% of these students. 2. Instrumental supportive sense level is high in men and emotional supportive sense level is higher in women. Also emotional supportive sense is higher in groups of those having more family members and coming from agricultural regions. 3. The sense of living with aged parents is higher in those living with grandparents than those living separate. The sense of living with sons and daughters after aging is stronger in the students from the Science and Engineering Departments than in the Social and Human Sciences Departments; also higher for men than women. 4. Recognition of elderly care socialization is higher in those from Social and Human Sciences Departments than from Science and Engineering Departments; higher in the case of upper classmenand aged groups, groups having fewer family members than more family members, and in the case of living separated from grandparents. 5. The factors affecting the sense of living with grandparents were family cohesion and instrumental supportive sense. The factors affecting the sense of elderly care socialization were family cohesion, instrumental supportive sense, and emotional supportive sense. From the results it is concluded that to insure a healthy and happy lifestyle for aged people, elderly care socialization offered by society and the country must provide desirable, appropriate care services based on the centralized support system of the family. In order to do this, we propose that elderly care needs inter-family and inter-generational fusion programs to improve family cohesion and care recognition. Also, elderly care is in urgent need to build a strong Family and Health Welfare System for care socialization.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.26-37
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• 2024

Background: The purpose of this study was to compare and analyze the differences in charges and length of stay per case between spine specialty hospitals and non-specialty hospitals, and to identify the factors that influenced them. Methods: This study used claims data from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, including inpatient visits from January 2021 to December 2022. The healthcare facility status data was used to identify the characteristics of study hospitals. Multilevel analysis was conducted to identify factors associated with the charges and Poisson regression analysis was conducted to analyze the length of stay between spine specialty hospitals and non-specialty hospitals. There were 32,015 cases of spine specialty hospitals and 17,555 cases of non-specialty hospitals. Results: For four of five common spinal surgeries, specialty hospitals shaped longer length of stay than those of non-specialty hospitals. Multilevel and Poisson regression analysis revealed that regardless of the type of surgery, higher age and higher Charlson comorbidity index scores were significantly associated with an increase in both the charges per case and length of stay (p<0.05). However, when hospitals were located in metropolitan areas, there was a significant decrease (p<0.05). Conclusion: This study found that specialty hospital had higher inpatient charges and loner length of stay contrary to the previous study results. Further studies will be needed to find which contribute to the differences.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.77-110
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• 1994

This study is an empiriacl analysis of effects of government intervention on the health care delivery system in Korea. The purposes of this study are to find out the effects of government intervention on the per capita national health expenditure(per capita NHE), crude mortality rate(CMR), and institutional efficiency. Here, the institutional efficiency is defined as a formula shown below: log$\frac{100-curde mortality rate }{per capita NHE}$$\times$100. The formula indicates that the instiutional efficiency increases if the CMR and/or per capita NHE goes down. In the meantime the government intervention is measured by six independent variables: I) the degree of social developments, ii) the numberr of physicians per 100, 000 population, iii) the proportion of specialists among the total physicians, iv) the proportion of public expenditure among the NHE, v) the proportion of public beds to the total number of beds, vi) the proportion of physicians working at the public sector to the total number of physicians. In the above six independent variables iv), v) and vi) are the ones that reflect the degree of government intervention. In actual calculation, the two independent variables v) and vi) are integrated into a new variable based on one to one correspondence. The materials used are the time-series data from 1970 through 1990 in Korea. A path analysis and the time-series regression analysis were adopted to estimate and examine the causal relationship between variables involved. And decomposition of the effect of causal relationship is made to find net effect, direct and indirect effect. The major findings are as follows; 1. The effect of public expenditure, number of physicians per 100, 000 population, the proportion of specialists among the total physicians and social development shows a positive relationship with per capita NHE. Only if the government intervention would be counted, the effects of the number of physicians and the proportion of specialists succeed in containing per capita NHE. 2. In additionn to the above four variables, one additional variable, per capita NHE, was also responsible for the reduction of CMR. The factor of social development found to be the most potent predictor of the CMR reduction. However, the CMR reduction due to government intervention was negligible. 3. Meanwhile, the above four variables were found to was have negative effects on the institutional efficiency. The reverse is true when the government intervention is counted. For example, the number of physicians and the proportion of specialists have played a positive role in raising institutional efficiency via goverment intervention. This comes from the factual effect that the increment of institutional efficiency via the reduction of per capita NHE is bigger than via the reduction of CMR.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.141-155
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• 2024

Background: This study aimed to identified the relationship between the risk of obstructive sleep apnea, subjective health, and health-related quality of life among the middle-aged and elderly population in Korea. Methods: Adults aged 40 or older were extracted from the total 22,559 respondents to the 2019-2020 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey VIII, and secondary analysis was conducted on a total of 6,659 middle-aged and elderly people with no missing values. Logistic regression analysis and multiple regression analysis were conducted to examine the relationship between obstructive sleep apnea risk factors and subjective health as well as quality of life. Results: The subjective health status decline in the high-risk group compared to the non-risk group for obstructive sleep apnea was statistically significantly higher, with an odds ratio of 1.84 (p<0.001). The health-related quality of life was also statistically significantly lower by 0.02 points (β, -0.02; p<0.001). As a result of subgroup analysis on specific variables, the association between the risk of obstructive sleep apnea and subjective health and health-related quality of life was statistically significant depending on gender, sleep time, presence of depression, household income, and number of household members. Based on the obstructive sleep apnea risk group, women had a higher correlation with low subjective health and lower health-related quality of life scores than men. Sleeping time of more than 8 hours or less than 6 hours was more associated with low subjective health and lower health-related quality of life score than sleeping time of 6-8 hours. Patients with depression were more likely to have low subjective health than those without depression. The lower the household income level and the smaller the number of household members, the higher the association with low subjective health and the lower the health-related quality of life score. Conclusion: It is essential to recognize that the risk of obstructive sleep apnea not only directly affects sleep disorders but also impacts individuals' subjective health and quality of life. Consequently, social support and education should be provided to raise awareness of this issue. Particularly, programs for preventing and managing obstructive sleep apnea should target vulnerable groups such as women, individuals in single-person households, low household income, and those with depression, aiming to improve their subjective health and quality of life.